Zvezda web site

The Emhar figures are made of polythene, and therefore need to be superglued into position. If you coat them with a layer of dilute white glue, you will find that paint adheres better, but even so, I wouldn't handle them more than necessary.

Cheers,

Chris.

I tried it again and this time I got through to their regular web site.  I called the shop where I bought the kit and the guy said if I had walked down the aisle about 4 more steps I would have been right in front of 3 boxes of those Viking figures. 

I'll have plenty of time to shop around because the place where I work is closing due to "global economic conditions".  I was going to retire two years from now anyway.  Thirty-five years doing the same job is long enough.  Can you say... burn out?  Now I'll have more time for models.  (Scale models, not the Russian women)

http://www.zvezda.org.ru/?lng=eng

I had no problem gettng in to the site... although I would not mind meeting a lovely Russian woman...

I recently built the Kog and used a few of the viking figures to give a sense of scale and thought they worked very well.  They are slightly bendable so you can alter the oarsmen's positions slightly, although its best to do this before painting as the paint can flake when you start bending the figures, even when primed with a pva solution. 

I also took a couple of the figures and tried wrapping some thinly pressed out clay around them to create a cloak which was easy to do and I thought quite effective.

Also I was in my local model shop last week and found a new Zveda kit, a Medieval Life Boat which is 1/72, is only 9.5cm long and is cheap.  I'm not sure of the historical accuracy but I decided to add it to my Kog display using the viking oarsmen with it to create a basic diorama and think they should look well.  I built my Kog in full sail and if I'd had the Life Boat beforehand I might have tried for a diorama with her in harbour instead.  Maybe next time.

The Hansa Cog is nominally 1/72 scale. Zvezda don't as far as I recall, do any suitable crew figures. However, Emhar do a set of 1/72 Viking oarsmen and sailors, which would be good for medieval Northern European sailors in general:

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1317

Clearly, the oarsmen will be of limited use, but if you buy a couple of sets, and don't plan on depicting an 'all hands' evolution, then a couple of sets should yield enough figures to populate your ship.

HTH,

Cheers,

Chris.